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Year-End Wrap-up 012: Listenings - Joe Kang's Favorite Music

by Joseph Kang

My list this year is again primarily metal (stylistically, most of it is influenced heavily by black metal). But, that isn’t to say it’s all that way. The Secret’s and Black Breath’s latest are hardcore that’s been heavily influenced by metal. And, as always, Converge is Converge. I will definitely say that two of the best live shows I saw in 2012 were Black Breath and Converge (separate bills). I saw Black Breath in a tiny DIY underground club. I finally got to see Converge as the headliner in a more "intimate" place than the larger venues I’d previously seen them in when they played in support of other artists.

Away from metal, Big K.R.I.T.’s “Live From the Underground” was definitely one of my favorite new hip-hop releases this year. Close behind it are Killer Mike’s “R.A.P. Music” and El-P’s “Cancer 4 Cure”. The Evian Christ release is UK bass music but when I listen to it, I hear a lot of chopped and screwed dirty south rap as an influence.